NFL hands down suspensions…wow

So Goodell does have stones. Read here from espn.com re the 6 NFL players who have been suspended – including the Williams duo from Minnesota. Nice. There is an injunction I guess that has been filed on behalf of the players in an effort to keep them playing yet this year. We’ll see. Could be good news for the Packers.

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3 Responses to “NFL hands down suspensions…wow”

I thought this would be the outcome as I said an earlier post. The NFL policy is very clear and leaves no wiggle room. Each player is responsible for what is in their bodies and the NFL has an approved list of supplements that players can use. These players used a non-approved supplement that contained a banned substance. Everything else is immaterial. It doesn’t matter why they took the supplement and it doesn’t matter that they didn’t know a banned substance was in the supplement. To not suspend these players would create a whole bunch of issues down the road for the NFL.

I also cannot see how these players get a court to stop these suspensions. They would first have to convince a court they have jurisdiction over the matter and then they would have to prove that the NFL officials had a legal duty to advise the players that Star Caps contained a banned substance. I think they will be hard pressed to get a court to agree to either of those things.

I agree that these guys violated the rules as collectively bargained, but I’m not sure this was the intended spirit of the rule. By all accounts, these players were not taking performance-enhancing drugs. They were apparently taking an over-the-counter drug that did not list the presence of Bumetanide, a banned substance. Is it realistic to expect every player to do a chemical analysis of everything he ingests? Meanwhile, the actual steroid users continue amidst the false public impression that the league’s policy is effective in deterring PEDs.

I am curious about what’s on the NFL’s “approved” list, though. Are there no other diuretics allowed? Is it a comprehensive list of medicines and supplements that may actually be of use to NFL players? Or is it just a list of useless “snake oil” substances?

I also think it’s reprehensible that the NFL knew that StarCaps contained a banned substance and failed to notify players. Regardless of whether they have a legal duty, they certainly should have an ethical responsibility. What if the players suffered from health problems or even died as a result?